Google's Project Stream lets you play Assassin's Creed Odyssey in Chrome
Sign up to potentially get access to the test starting Oct. 5.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey is coming to Chrome.
In a surprise announcement Monday, Google revealed a partnership with Ubisoft to bring the upcoming game Assassin's Creed Odyssey to your Chrome browser.
On the same day the game comes out on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, a limited number of players will be able to put Google's new streaming technology, Project Stream, to the test in what could be a big step forward for efforts to bring blockbuster AAA games to streaming platforms.
"The idea of streaming such graphically rich content that requires near-instant interaction between the game controller and the graphics on the screen poses a number of challenges," Google said in its blog post announcing Project Stream. "When streaming TV or movies, consumers are comfortable with a few seconds of buffering at the start, but streaming high-quality games requires latency measured in milliseconds, with no graphic degradation."
Google isn't alone in bringing Assassin's Creed Odyssey to streaming platforms. Ubisoft is also experimenting with bringing the game to the Nintendo Switch in Japan via cloud servers.
The announcement follows longstanding rumors about Google making a more serious foray into the gaming industry, dubbed "Yeti" by early reports.
You can watch a 1080p, 60fps video of Assassin's Creed Odyssey captured from Project Stream below, and sign up for the limited beta here. And a word of caution for this with slow internet connections, the test is geared toward participants with a home internet connection of at least 25 megabits per second.
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